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Libya Returns Nuclear Fuel to Russia
Does this mean the Iranian "Atoms for Peace" "electricity production program"
also actually produces byproducts that can be enriched by running them through centerfuges produced by Dr. Khan's proliferation network based on the centerfuge design he stole from the Dutch company that briefly employed him? At one time Qadaffi was public enemy number one, but his about face on these proliferation matters is providing a source of intelligence that is going to change the entire world for the better. Dave MOSCOW (AP) - Enriched nuclear fuel the former Soviet Union provided to Libya two decades ago was returned to Russia on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Atomic Energy Ministry spokesman as saying 88 nuclear fuel assemblies - bundles of rods that contain fuel used for reactors - were returned from the Tajura research center outside Tripoli, which had received it between 1980 and 1984. The Tajura facility includes a 10-megawatt reactor built in 1980 with equipment from the Soviet Union. A statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said it helped Libya in recent days with the removal of weapons-grade uranium from the research facility for transport back to Russia. Libya, after long negotiations with the United States and Britain, recently acknowledged having a nuclear weapons program and pledged to scrap it. The uranium was 80 percent enriched and was in the form of fresh, unused fuel, the Vienna-based IAEA said in a statement. It was in fuel components containing about 28.7 pounds of fissile uranium-235, as well as about 6.6 pounds of non-fissile uranium, the statement said. Naturally occurring uranium contains only small amounts of the isotope uranium-235, which is needed to support chain reactions in nuclear reactors and weapons. The metal must be refined to boost the concentration of that isotope, a process called enrichment. The $700,000 fuel return operation was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under a three-way program with Russia and the IAEA to address nuclear safety and proliferation risks. The IAEA said Russia intends to blend it down into low-enriched uranium, making it unsuitable for use in a nuclear weapon. Uranium enriched to 80 percent of the U-235 isotope is barely usable for nuclear weapons. Bombmakers prefer 90-percent or more enriched uranium. The IAEA says 55 pounds of highly enriched uranium is considered ``significant,'' that is, sufficient for a bomb. 03/08/04 23:30 EST |
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